Tic Tac Toe
by No one and Nobody
Summary: As Hikaru wanders around the empty school to ease his hopefully temporary devastation, he bumps into a little old memory that might be just what he needs to get back up again. The story's a tad lighter than the summary, though. HikaruOC. Hope you like it


**Tic- Tac- Toe**

**by No one and Nobody**

**(slightly edited, story unchanged)  
**

* * *

A boy wandered quietly down the empty school corridors.

Or rather, an attractive high school redhead with an attitude- and half of an infamously troublesome duo- strutted down the school's luxurious corridor-ish halls.

Hitachiin Hikaru wandered quietly down the empty school corridors without his fans or his friends or, unexpectedly, his brother.

It's amazing what you can accomplish when you're devastated.

He liked the school after class hours, he decided. He was all alone, and he let himself enjoy the peace and quiet for a change. It gave him time to hear his own thoughts. It wasn't long before he had shuffled his feet into a long-since-forgotten hallway.

Unconsciously, or perhaps on a whim, he made his way into an empty classroom and sat himself on a desk.

His eyes wandered around the room. He used to have his lessons in here.

In fact, didn't he have his first real crush here?

"There." he muttered. He stared at the seat on his left. It had been absolute torture for him to sit next to her- but somehow, at the same time, it had been a treat. He could barely remember her now; all he could remember was that she had been his favorite tic-tac-toe opponent.

Ugh. What was her name again?

He bowed down his head to examine his desk and to think.

This was the desk he had doodled on, he thought. "It's still here." he said, half laughing.

He had even bravely engraved a little H+P somewhere in the corner, and now he smiled as he traced it fondly with his fingers.

"Can I sit here?"

Hikaru's head shot up. Wasn't he alone just now?

He looked at the girl who had so rudely disturbed his little reverie.

She had nice hair tied neatly and cutely in a sort of bun, and sitting promptly on her nose were a pair of glasses. She looked like she might be in his year.

He nodded distractedly.

"Thanks." she said, as she took her seat beside him.

_Don't sit on what's- her-face's seat!_ He screamed at her in his head.

Obviously she couldn't hear him.

They sat quietly together for what seemed like hours.

"Hey."

Hikaru looked up again. "Yeah?" he asked her.

"Do you want to play?" she asked him, fiddling with something in her jacket.

"H-huh?" he asked her, a little embarrassed and _plenty_ confused.

She pulled out a pen and held it in her right hand, and then she put out her left hand as if to ask for something. "Could you give me your hand?"

"W-what?" he asked her again, his current emotions stretching themselves.

"Sorry, but I don't have any paper."

He decided to trust her and put out his own hand. She began to draw something on it.

Hikaru looked down at his hand, and was surprised to see that it was now perfectly ready for a game of tic-tac-toe.

"There" she announced. "I'll go first." she drew a little "P" somewhere.

"P?" he asked her, and she nodded. "My nickname starts with a P." He followed suit and scribbled down a sloppy "H".

"H, huh?" she snickered. "Hikaru."

He looked up at the sound of his name. So she did know him. "Is that why--"

She shook her head. "I always play it this way." she replied distractedly.

"Where's your brother?" she asked as she wrote down another "P" on his hand.

"Meeting."

"Is he hanging out with the rest of the gang?" she asked casually, watching him scribble another "H"

Hikaru nodded.

"Why aren't you with them?" she asked while continuing the game.

"I can't." Awfully nosy, isn't she? "Face her, that is." he didn't know why he bothered throwing that in. Maybe it had something to do with her... bravery. Not many girls talked to him without stammering. Or fainting.

"Really? Her who?" she asked again, as she drew another tic-tac-toe table on the same hand (She being the winner, of course).

Hikaru sighed. Of course she didn't know, and it wasn't like she should anyway. He let dead air pass between them for a while to avoid answering the question.

"Fujoka-chan?" She didn't even bother to spare him a glance.

Hikaru on the other hand, looked at her in surprise. She knew?

"I could just tell." she answered his thoughts. "So why can't you face her?"

He took a long time writing down another "H" before he answered her.

" I can't. Not after what I said."

"Which is?"

He had never answered this many questions in ages. "I told her that..."

"Hmm?" she asked. Was she ever going to give him a break? Fine.

"That I loved her." he muttered. His eyes fell on her face. She nodded understandingly. "Unrequited love is the pits."

There was something in her forward-ness that didn't hit him like a ton of bricks. He nodded back.

"But that's one of the best things about teenagers like us." she drew a line to mark her perfect game, and then she looked up at him for the first time. "We can get back up again after we fall, right?"

He realized they had stopped their little game, and that despite that, she had kept a hold on his hand- and his gaze. He also realized that he didn't let either go.

She was the first to drop both. She slid the pen back into her pocket and stood up. She glided over to the door.

"Nice talking to you, Hika-chan."

Hika-chan?

"Hey, what does 'P' stand for, anyway?" he asked the most important thing last.

"Hmm." she said, as if she actually had to think about it. "Guess." she concluded, and she smiled at him before she turned to leave.

He felt his heart skip a beat. _Guess?_ He thought. _How?_ He looked at his desk again to think for a few seconds, and a little doodle caught his eye and made him smile.

"Pii-chan." he called quietly, interrupting her exit and stopping her abruptly.

"Yeah?" she called back curiously.

"About getting back up?"

She nodded in response, and then he grinned. "I don't think I ever really fell."

She smiled warmly. "I'm glad."

"But I _do_ think-" Hikaru's gaze was soft as he waited for her to turn around again. "That I kept my promise."

She smiled at him. "Me too."

Once Hikaru was alone again, he re-traced the doodle on his desk that had interested him so much- a tic-tac-toe game that he had lost badly in. He traced it with a distinctive kind of happiness now- first the little P's, and then the messy H's.

Pii-chan was the first girl he had ever confessed to. He had made a promise to her, and she in turn, had promised him the same thing.

He promised he wouldn't stop loving her.

And so he never did.

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**A/N- If anyone has noticed, I've edited it a wee bit. Haha. I wrote this some time ago, and after re-reading it I was just ITCHING to clean it up.**

**Whether or not you've just come across this now, tell me what you think! ;)  
**


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